She has some questions, God has some answers

I picked a girl up from a piercing parlor in Salt Lake City and was took her up to the University of Utah. On the way we started talking about names and her name which was pronounced a little bit differently than you would think and the interesting thing about genealogy and names. I pointed out that my name has been misspelled. In fact hotel employees used to correct my name spelling after I made my reservation making it an adventure every time I checked in.

Then I talked about how cool it is to know about our ancestors. I found out that she was from India there was no genealogy done in those areas of the rural part of India where her family was from. She talked about how in the cities they kept better records. The spirit touched me and I knew that this was a great opportunity and that I had some work to do here. I told her that a lot of my ancestors came from small towns and when doing genealogy work in small towns, a lot of the times it’s not the government that has the records it’s the churches.

People go to the churches and then the churches keep the records of baptisms and things like that. I told her that this is how a lot of genealogy work gets done in our church. She said you’re Mormon right? I said yes and she asked me flat out, what are the things that the Mormons believe? She said, I have some friends and I’m trying to learn a little bit about them.

I told her that it would be perfect for me to teach her that! I asked her if it would be fine if I started with three things that we believe as members of the church that no one else believes. She said that would be awesome.

I started by teaching her about how because God loves everyone not just the people in Jerusalem. Because he loves everyone he sent his son Jesus Christ to more people than just the ones in Jerusalem. She said, when did that happen? I told her that in the Bible Jesus said other sheep I have that are not of this fold and that he had received a commandment from his father to go to them so that they could hear his voice. I told her that this happened in America. I told her that in America God had prophets who had prepared the way and the Jesus Christ appeared from heaven. He descended down and taught the people. I told her that when Jesus was here after he taught the people and after he organized his church he said, still other sheep I have which are not of this land or the land of Jerusalem or the lands roundabout. He said that he had received a commandment from his father to go to those people so that they could hear his voice and be counted among his sheep.

I asked her if the people back then in those other places, had the ability to know about Jesus Christ and she said no. I said, then there would be no other way for God to show his love to everyone without sending his son and his word to the other peoples. He sent his son Jesus Christ. She thought for a minute and said yes.

I told her that because of this we have the Book of Mormon. I told her that the Book of Mormon contains the prophecies from the prophets and the account of the visit of Jesus Christ to America. I testified of the truthfulness of the book and of Joseph Smith, the prophet, and the spirit came in the car. I could tell she was moved.

I told her that the second reason had to do with what we talked about at first, Genealogy. I told her that we collect information into genealogy

because that’s how people are saved. I told her that through this God saves all of his children.

I explained to her that when Jesus had died and his body was in the tomb before he was resurrected he went to the spirit world and organized the teaching of the gospel to everyone, no matter where they lived,who died. I asked her what are the chances that someone who lived in India 2000 years ago was taught the gospel and she said zero.

I asked her if these ancestors of hers needed to be baptized to go to heaven? She said according to the Bible they do. I said, how do they get there? She said, they can’t. I said does that sound like a loving God who loves all of his children? A God who is equal and gives them all an equal opportunity and she said no.

I said wouldn’t a loving father have a plan to save his children? She said yes! I said that plan is baptism for the dead. We go to the temple and we are baptized for someone who has died. They then get the opportunity having been taught the gospel in the spirit world to accept or reject it. She said that’s beautiful.

I said that’s God‘s plan to bring home as many of his children as he possibly can. She said, I’ve always had a question about something I’ve heard from my Mormon friends. Will you answer my questions? I said yes! She said what is the outer darkness and how could that possibly be just or loving?

I said our heavenly father is light and he gives light through his teachings. His truth has light and he gives us as much light as we can handle. The more clean and obedient we are the more light we seek.

I told her that there are some people who full well know the truth who have experienced the light who turned from it, who rejected and who refused to be part of the light. Those are the people that go to outer darkness. I said, in a way I don’t see that as being mean or bad to them because that’s what they sought, that was their goal.

I said if it’s somebody that’s just disobedient and doesn’t obey the laws of God there are three kingdoms of light. I said Ephesians talked about the kingdoms that are the glory of the moon and the sun and the stars. Someone who is not being good in this life would be in a kingdom with the glory of the stars or someone who is doing the best they can would have the opportunity to live in the kingdom with the glory of the sun.

I told her that someone that rejected the greater glory in life probably wouldn’t want that level of light or feel comfortable with it for eternity. She said that makes a lot of sense. I told her that our father in heaven is a loving father but most of all he is a father. He wants his children to be happy and he wants to bring as many of them as close to him as will come.

I was dropping her off at the University of Utah where I perceived by the spirit that she had a lot of questions about some of the things that we believe.

I told her that I was getting the impression that she looked at commandments as being restrictive and making you less happy. Also she viewed the fact that she was being bombarded up by her friends about how stupid the beliefs of the church were. She looked shocked when I said that and said absolutely! How did you know? I said let’s deal with these one at a time.

You’re worried about the word of wisdom. I’ll let you know that we have alcoholism in my family. My grandfather was an alcoholic and he was miserable. He was a slave to that drink and he never had freedom. He never had true joy because he needed that drink and that cigarette. She said you nailed that one right on. I was thinking exactly about that. My father is an alcoholic and that is 100% the case.

I told her that the commandments help us make choices that keep us free and keep us happy. I told her I’m sure that every day her father would like to have a normal relationship with her that didn’t include alcohol. I saw that she had a tear in her eye. When I said that, she said yes. God gives us commandments that may seem difficult to obey but obeying them it makes us truly free in life.

Another example of that is the case of a man or a woman that has a lot of sex and has abortions and has multiple kids. Those people are not free they are enslaved to the decisions they make for the rest of their lives. They have diseases, they have child support, they have mental stress from the decisions they’ve made and the things that they’ve done outside of the commandments of God. Those things done in the name of fun enslaved them for a lifetime. She said wow.

I said, the last one that you were concerned about was the LGBTQAI+ community. I said, your friends have been telling you that we hate gays or we hate the LGBTQAI+ community. I said nothing could be further from the truth. We see them making these decisions that we know do not lead to happiness.

We understand that making these decisions might be fun in the moment but it doesn’t bring happiness and we understand that God‘s plan is for us to have happiness and so we follow his plan. I told her that God has also commanded us to love members of the LBGTQAI+ community. That means we’re supposed to love them and not mock them and not hurt them. We should not do anything to them that we wouldn’t want to have done to us. We are supposed to love them because they are our brothers and sisters.

She said wow again. The spirit had been profoundly working with her in the car and I asked her, what do you feel in the car? She said I feel an energy. I want to learn. I want to feel this peace that I feel right now always. I said, you can! Earlier I talked about the Book of Mormon. Do you have a copy? She said no.

I reached into my glove box and got a copy of the Book of Mormon that the Secrists prepared and I gave it to her. I showed her the questions of the soul and I said read this book and you’ll feel the peace and the warmth of the presence of God.

I explained to her that Heavenly Father was her father and that he loved her and what she was feeling right now was his presence telling her that these things were true. I said, right now do you doubt that these things are true? And she said no. I said read this book and pray and God will help you see the truth.

I asked, have you ever been to one of our churches and she said no. I said you mentioned that you have good friends who are members of the church and she said yes. I asked, will you see one of them tonight? She said no but I’ll see one this week. I said when you see one this week go to that person and tell them what you’ve learned tonight. Tell them what you’ve felt tonight. She said so I should go tell them that I’ve got this Book of Mormon and I believe it’s true? I said yes. They will help you.

I asked her if she knew where the Institute building was and she said no. I just pointed in the direction of the Institute building and said it is a couple of block that way. She said, oh I believe I’ve seen that. I said, they have meetings there on Sunday and you should go. She asked, anyone can go? I said yes! She said is it really OK if I go. I said yes!

She had to go but she said it was amazing how you perceived and answered all the points and all the questions I’ve had since I got here. I told her that when we are baptized we are clean before God and then we get the gift of the Holy Ghost. I told her that the gift of the Holy Ghost whispers to us the things we should say.

I told her that because she was God‘s daughter God knew what she wanted and needed to hear and the Holy Ghost whispered that to me and that’s what I taught her. She said you were right on with everything. She said this is amazing and I can’t wait to get started. I said your friends will be eager to help you on this journey.

With tears in her eyes she thanked me for the ride and went into her apartment. She waved, pointed at the Book of Mormon, gave me the thumbs up sign and went inside. Amazing.